On This Day January 19th

 OTD

January 19th is the Nineteenth day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 346 days remain until the end of the year.

 

Events

1607 – San Augustin Church in Manila was officially completed; it is the oldest church in the Philippines.

1764 – Bolle Willum Luxdorph records in his diary that a mail bomb, possibly the world's first, has severely injured the Danish Colonel Poulsen, residing at Børglum Abbey.

1853 – Giuseppe Verdi's opera Il Trovatore receives its premiere performance in Rome.

1883 – The first electric lighting system employing overhead wires, built by Thomas Edison, begins service at Roselle, New Jersey.

1901 – Queen Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom, stricken with paralysis. She died three days later at the age of 81.

1915 – Georges Claude patents the neon discharge tube for use in advertising.

1920 – The United States Senate votes against joining the League of Nations.

1937 – Howard Hughes set a new air record by flying from Los Angeles to New York City in seven hours, 28 minutes, and 25 seconds.

1953 – Almost 72 percent of all television sets in the United States are tuned into I Love Lucy to watch Lucy give birth.

1983 – Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie is arrested in Bolivia.

1983 – The Apple Lisa, the first commercial computer from Apple Computer to have a graphical user interface and a computer mouse, is announced.

1999 – British Aerospace agreed to acquire the defense subsidiary of the General Electric Company, forming BAE Systems in November 1999.

 

Birthdays

200 – Dōgen Zenji, founder of Sōtō Zen (d. 1253)

1676 – John Weldon, English organist and composer (d. 1736)

1739 – Joseph Bonomi the Elder, an Italian architect, designed Longford Hall and Barrells Hall (d. 1808)

1807 – Robert E. Lee, American general and academic (d. 1870)

1809 – Edgar Allan Poe, American short story writer, poet, and critic (d. 1849)

1839 – Paul Cézanne, French painter (d. 1906)

1863 – Werner Sombart, German economist and sociologist (d. 1941)

1907 – Briggs Cunningham, American race car driver, sailor, and businessman (d. 2003)

1943 – Janis Joplin, American singer-songwriter (d. 1970)

1946 – Dolly Parton, American singer-songwriter and actress

1969 – Junior Seau, American football player (d. 2012)

 

Holiday Spotlight

National Popcorn Day

  Did you know that the corn we eat and the corn we pop are two different varieties of maize? The corn you’d find on your dinner table is most likely unable to pop! Only one variety of corn can become popcorn: Zea mays everta. This corn variety has small ears, and the kernels burst when exposed to dry heat.

 In 1948, small heads of Zea mays everta were discovered by Herbert Dick and Earle Smith in the Bat Cave of west-central New Mexico. Ranging from smaller than a penny to about two inches, the oldest Bat Cave ears were about 4,000 years old. Several individually popped kernels were also discovered, which have since been carbon-dated and shown to be approximately 5,600 years old. There’s also evidence of early use of popcorn in Peru, Mexico, and Guatemala, as well as other places in Central and South America.

 Aztecs used popcorn to decorate their clothes, create ceremonial embellishments, and for nourishment. Native Americans have also been found to consume and utilize popcorn daily. In a cave in Utah, thought to be inhabited by Pueblo Native Americans, popcorn that dates to over 1,000 years ago has been found. French explorers who traveled to the New World discovered popcorn made by the Iroquois Natives in the Great Lakes region. As colonists moved around North America and the USA came to be, many people adopted popcorn as a popular and healthy snack.

 

Other Include

Archery Day

Artist as Outlaw Day

Brew a Potion Day

Confederate Memorial Day - (Texas)

Good Memory Day

International Fetish Day

National Gun Appreciation Day

New Friends Day

Robert E. Lee's Birthday - (State of Florida)

Tenderness Toward Existence Day

Tin Can Day

World Day of Migrants and Refugees

World Quark Day

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